Cruising through the Cotswolds

Well we made it back from our first driving trip in the UK alive. The car thing went pretty smooth despite leaving our traffic sign book at home which meant I could only assume signs below were pointing out places for me to take out my antique camera and take pictures.

Photo opportunity?

 

When we went to pick up the car they unfortunately only had a manual car (it seems automatic drivers are few and far between here) which meant that I couldn’t experience the adventure of driving on the other side of the road – which was probably a good thing seeing that the roads were too small, oncoming traffic was too close and we encountered multiple walkers and horseback riders on these very small roads that wouldn’t have had a chance with me at the wheel. I was amazed though about two things…one that the windshield washers went the opposite direction of ours (aaah the small things that amaze me) but the second was that gear shift was the same as on North American cars?!?

I prefer an automatic

 

 

 

One of the few things I do remember about driving a manual car is that if you pull the gear shift toward your leg and push up to be in first…hmm using this theory I would be in 5th pretty quickly…the pedals however are also the same so I guess it makes sense to have the gears this way (again, good thing I wasn’t driving).

Anyway car dealings aside we couldn’t have picked a better weekend as it was sunny and hot all weekend which was lovely. We started off at Cheltenham and toured around a route that took us through adorable little villages each with their own local pub covered in leafy vines with a crooked little roof.  There were also tons of walking trails through the area that I think next time would be good to do as we passed these amazingly huge homes and castles in the car but you didn’t get a good look through the window – turning around to double back was virtually impossible due to the fact most roads were just one lane wide. 

Anyway all in all it was lovely and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.  I am also happy to say that I think I am over my paralysing fear of driving in the UK…I still don’t want to do it in London but am excited about the prospect of more road trips to places I have only heard of like Devon, Cornwall, the Lake District and Wales J

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